Arsenal fans have been making their feelings known in no small measure since yesterday afternoon when rumours made the rounds in cyberspace that RVP had left the training camp in Germany to fly back to England to complete a switch to United.

The rumour was dispelled fast enough by the club as it tweeted and posted pictures of the boys in training with a lot of emphasis on pictures that included RVP training alongside his mates at the training camp.

But evidently, there's reason to believe RVP may be in advanced talks with United for a move in that direction after reports that he had informed Juventus in a telephone conversation that he was in advanced discussions with another club.

For obvious reasons the club is reluctant to do this bit of business because of the history of rivalry between the clubs and has gone ahead to make things difficult for United given Ferguson's frustrations which he couldn't hide yesterday,

"I can't give you any more information. We have made a bid and they've been trying to negotiate with other clubs. We just have to persevere. Hopefully it will come our way. We're trying our best but there's no progress at this moment in time. I don't have a gut feeling on it at the moment, I must admit. We're not getting any breakthrough with Arsenal. It's difficult to say why they're operating this way. I don't know what their thoughts are because they're not giving anything away."

The part I don't get is why he's feigning ignorance of "why they're operating this way." He's one of the most knavish old foxes in the business and unless it's all part of his guile he knows for certain why we will not willingly let our captain move over to his camp.

Though it's cooled off over the past couple of years because of the rise of Chelsea and City, both sets of fans still consider each other as the old enemy after many years of going head-to-head in the battle for supremacy in the English Premiership which threw up some of the fiercest football matches ever seen in the premiership. If you need a reminder, this video should do it then see the one below too

This is not to mention the heated exchanges between Ferguson and Wenger that probably started when Wenger in his second season at Arsenal complained that the fixtures list favoured United who was the defending champion. Ferguson responded by calling Wenger a novice while advising him to stick to talking about Japanese football. The novice upstaged the champion that season and won the league title and so began years of a personal rivalry between both men, the like of which football has never seen.

There Sir Alex, if you needed a reminder on why we choose to operate this way, you have it now.

Football is a business amongst other things and it is difficult to see why a businessman will shut down a chance to make in excess of ₤20m especially given the fact that the subject of the sale is 29 years old and has a history of injuries that may crop up again within the one year left on his contract. The pragmatic thing will be to sell at that price and find a like-for-like replacement in the time left for the transfer window to shut down but there are extenuating circumstances at play here. Selling our best player by a mile to United will be a controversial decision that will strengthen our rivals, possibly weaken us and ultimately enhance the opinion that we are a feeder team for the big clubs more so one of our fiercest rivals.

Not selling RVP this season is not a loss of revenue for the club but will be a gain -a gain the club can discount if need be. The worst case scenario will be to allow him go abroad to the likes of Juventus for a much reduced transfer fee in the the region of ₤12m. But please don't put us in the position of seeing RVP lining up against us in a United shirt.

RVP has been in the club long enough to know first hand what the rivalry between both club means to the fans so if he pushes for the move then there will be no bigger "Fuck all y'all" than that. The hatred of Emmanuel Adebayor by Arsenal fans will have nothing on what it will portend to see RVP in a United shirt.

In the end, what may tilt RVP's decision to move on to United or anywhere else for that matter may be if the club decides to strip him of the captaincy on the back of his statement questioning the club's ambitions which no one will blame the club for if they do. That coupled with any perception that the fans will be unforgiving given what we consider the disloyalty he has repaid the club with after standing by him for years as he struggled with his fitness levels season after season.

The latter I can guarantee will mean nada if he makes up for that misdemeanor by hitting the ground running next season and banging in a few goals. We are fickle like that and will sing "he scores when he wants" again in response. The former has to be a personal decision that will depend on whether he will consider his being stripped of the captaincy as a humiliating affront on his over-sized ego.